A Light at the End of the Tunnel

I am sorry, I have waited so long to update all of you.  And another warning... this will be somewhat long, but it is something that I want to share because many of you who are following our journey are also going through times like we are, and I want to share how the Lord worked today.  We are so blessed by all of your prayers for us, and today, the Lord showed Himself mighty on our behalf.  NO, we did not got to court today, like we had begged and pleaded with the Lord along with many of you.  But in all of our praying, we also asked the Lord to have His will in our lives and if it was not His will that we would get to have court today, that we would be willing to accept it knowing that He knows what is best for us.  I would be lying if I told you that I didn't ask the Lord "WHY?"; that I wasn't disappointed; that I wasn't heartbroken because I won't get to see my girls, whom I miss so much, like we had prayed we would; that I wasn't upset with the government entities that are supposed to be acting on our behalf, but simply don't care; that I wasn't upset at how the system works; etc.  And yet, in the middle of it all, we felt your prayers and our hearts were encouraged even in the midst of discouragement.  How???  Well, it all started this morning....

I woke up early to get some of my work done before we went to our morning visit.  I had not slept well at all and actually dreamt that I was coming home and our girls were waiting in the airport for me.  :)  My sister had emailed me and it was such a HUGE encouragement!  She always knows what I need, and that is why I love her so very much!  She shared two songs with me, and they hit home exactly where I needed to be.  It is easy to praise the Lord when things are going my way.  It is easy to trust Him when He is directing my path just the way I want Him do.  And it pleases Him when we praise Him in the good times.  But He is still God and He still loves us when things don't go our way, when our path does not go how we intended it to go, and He is still worthy of our praise even when we are heartbroken, when we are hurting, and when we don't understand.  If we can praise Him even in the midst of those times, I believe it brings the Lord true pleasure and honor.    So, I made a decision that no matter what happened today I would praise the Lord and give Him the glory. 

We went to our regular morning visit and when they brought Vika out, I knew immediately that she was better.  She was still tired, and she was still hungry, but she was smiling! 

What a BLESSING!!!  It was such a huge blessing to see her smile back.  Praise the Lord!!!  The Lord also blessed us with some answers today because there was someone, who I will introduce to you after we get home, there who spoke both languages and was able to interpret for us and get us some "answers." 

We were also able to interact with some of the other precious children that were there and we got to learn more about the place where Vika is.  AND, we got permission to visit Vika on Saturday if we didn't have court today.  God is so good to us!!!  From the very beginning when we came here, we knew that the workers cared about the children that are there, and I believe that to be even more true now.  It is the system and the authorities that are failing these precious children so much! 

I love you and kisses, Annalee, Ellie, Amarissa, and Ammadea!!!

I love you even more!!!

See you tomorrow!

Just for you, Annalee, Ellie, Amarissa, and Ammadea

After our morning visit, we got to do a little sightseeing and then I came back to our apartment to finish up my work while Abe went and picked up more water.   We are drinking water like it is going out of style! It has been very warm here and we are on the 10th and top floor of our apartment building.  It gets very, very warm.  A few days ago, the city shut off the hot water supply for the summer.  Why am I sharing this with you?  Because we are soooo blessed!!!  Can you imagine living on the top floor of an apartment without air conditioning, without hot water, and without water that is drinkable with a family of 6 all sleeping in one room?  Can you imagine sweeping the streets in the hot sun with dust blowing through the air from cars driving through potholes with a simple broom like we had maybe 50 to 100 years ago?  We are blessed above measure, and we don't even know it.  We forget to be thankful for those things because we simply take them for granted.  Now, before you think that we are poor hot, cold shower taking travelers, we are NOT.  Our landlord came and plugged in a hot water boiler for us that is giving us all the hot water we need.  Our apartment also has an airconditioning unit, but we have only used it one time.  We can live without our normal conveniences for a while, especially if it will allow us to be more thankful for what we have been so richly blessed with in America.  I was already wondering how I would get a hold of Abe if Y. called to tell us that we could go to court today, when Abe was already back.  :)  He, too, was ready for some good news! 

But the good news we were praying for didn't come.  Around 4 to 5 p.m. we called Y.  We knew that she had another court hearing today, so we did not want to bother her any earlier.  She told us that she had just found out that our Interpol clearances did come in, but they will need to be signed by another authority before we can have court.  So, we need your prayers that specifically on MONDAY, this authority will sign this paper, and we can have court on Tuesday.  If we have court on Tuesday, then I should be home on Thursday.  Yes, it is 4 days later than I wanted to be home, but we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!  We may be home next week!!!!  Yippee!!!  Of course, I will have to make a second trip to finish up the paperwork and finally bring Vika home since we will have a mandatory 10 day wait period.  Praise the Lord for some wonderful answers for us!  And how will we pass the time until then???  We have been so blessed to be involved in many of the orphan ministries that M. has started and built up over the years.  He has taken much time to bring us along to those, and although our hearts hurt for these precious children, at least we can love them even for a short time, and our time here is really flying!  So, we are praising the Lord for that as well!  Please also keep lifting up the Colemans in prayer.  They were able to speak with someone today, who processed their German Interpol Clearance, but now it also has to be signed by another authority, and then they can have court.  They have already been here for almost a week longer than we have, so they really need our prayers for a quick completion of their adoption! 

Thank you for all your prayers!  We are blessed beyond measure by the prayers you are lifiting up for us, and we know that it is your prayers that have brought us through today and through this process up until now!  So, I will end this post with how I feel right now, illustrated by Vika herself!  :) 

Please, let me go to sleep!!!